The amniocentesis had been done personally by the president of the City OB-GYN Medical Association.
And the paternity results were already in.
This was exactly what I'd wanted—for them to commit an even bigger crime trying to bury their affair!
To destroy the evidence, Molly had pulled rank and scheduled my surgery immediately.
Lying on the operating table, Molly swabbed me with iodine, her eyes red, getting ready to put me under general anesthesia.
Jude watched the moving shadow on the ultrasound screen, and his eyes welled up too, as if he couldn't help it.
He took my hand and choked out:
"Bella, why don't we just call this off?"
"Look, the baby already has a human shape, and it's a boy. If you carry him to term, you'll be able to walk tall in my family for the rest of your life. No one will ever mock you again for not being able to have children…"
"And my mother would even write your name into the family register. You'd be qualified to take part in the memorials and everything…"
Molly turned her face away and dabbed at the corner of her eye.
"That's right, Bella, in another six months you'd have status as the mother of his son. Why throw all that away over a bad dream?"
"Even I can't bear to look at this tiny little life. How can you, his own mother, be so heartless?"
Status as the mother of his son?
The two of them had already worked out that the moment I gave birth, they'd kick me to the curb.
I had to hand it to them—the scumbag and the slut put on a flawless performance.
If I hadn't heard the truth with my own ears yesterday, I couldn't even imagine how wretched I'd be six months from now.
Just picturing that scene made me tremble all over with fury.
"This is my uterus. Whether I keep this baby or not, that's my call!"
"If you two keep running your mouths, see if I don't put a knife in him right here!"
I grabbed the scissors off the surgical cart and made a show of stabbing them toward my belly.
Sure enough, Jude and Molly went white with terror, eyes wide.
"No!"
The two of them lunged at me like they'd lost their minds.
The scissors were caught four inches from my stomach and wrenched away.
Anyone who didn't know better would think Jude was so afraid I'd hurt myself.
But the truth was, he was only afraid I'd hurt their son.
After all, the two of them had other plans.
Before I went into the operating room, I'd pretended to make a trip to the bathroom.
The hidden camera I'd secretly planted in Molly's office had captured, perfectly, yet another of Jude and Molly's scheming sessions.
"Jude, do you think Bella could have found out I snuck over to your place last night, that she heard what we were up to?"
Jude shook his head.
"No way! It had to be a nightmare!"
"Otherwise, with her temper, she'd have stormed in right then and made it a fight to the death with the two of us! You've seen it yourself—the way she goes crazy with jealousy over you!"
Molly let go of her worry completely, and said with deep regret:
"Such a shame about our son. All those months I spent cultivating him, finally getting it to work…"
Jude sighed.
"Nana, I'll try to talk her around in a bit, see if I can coax her out of the surgery. But if she still won't listen, can you strip the embryo out and transplant it into your uterus directly?"
Molly had no intention of carrying it herself, and she was afraid of the pain, so she broke into tears on the spot and said no.
But Jude wouldn't let it go. He took her hand and pleaded:
"Nana, this is our first child, after all. I really can't bear to let it go…"
"If we actually get rid of it, you'd have to start all over from scratch, and the two of us couldn't sleep together for at least three months…"
As Jude said this, tears actually slid down his face.
A single tear from a man, performed until your heart breaks.
Molly had no choice but to agree.
"Then I'll put her under general anesthesia in a bit, draw two vials of her blood for the test, and I guarantee she'll be thrown out like a stray dog with nowhere to go!"
